So my family is having a chili cook-off around Christmas time this year as the start to a new tradition (with bowling!) and I’m looking for a recipe. I make a pretty good beef chili recipe that was a slightly modified version of an uncle’s family recipe. But, since that’s been adopted by my folks and other people know the original recipe I’m pretty sure we’re likely to have about 4 crocks of very similar chili. I need a new recipe, and I think a good chicken chili would be a popular break from the norm.
I’ve done some browsing online and it seems like the majority of chicken chili’s are white chilis, and that’s just not what appeals to me. A white chili typically is on the mild side and it just doesn’t satisfy that chili craving. So, I come to you good people, hat in hand, asking for aid in this noble quest.
One of my favorite chicken chili’s is served by a small local franchise chain called Pockets. It’s red and spicy and rich and yummy, so I’d love to come someplace close to that. Please don;t make me go in there and order 50 cups of their chili on December 22nd.
White chilis are made with white beans, like navy beans, and don’t use a tomato-based sauce.
Does it have to have a tomato-based sauce? I made a pretty awesome black chicken chili when I was out of navy beans. I could give you the basic idea, I never write down my recipe ideas so it would just be an approximation.
What the hell, I’ll post it anyway if anyone is interested.
2 cans black beans, drained (not rinsed)
2 cans black eyed peas, drained
6 cups chicken broth
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 can green chilis, drained
1 medium onion, diced
Pinch of flour, to thicken
Salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper, garlic, and cilantro to taste
That’s about as exact as I can get- refer to your favorite chili recipe for more exact measurements/cooking instructions. And a bit of lime juice would probably be nice in there, too, I just didn’t have any the night I decided to make this recipe.
If you don’t rinse the black beans, they give a nice dark color to the sauce, and the black-eyed peas make a nice contrast. I like mine pretty spicy, I put a lot of pepper (and cumin- I love cumin!).
Typically a white chicken chili is made with white beans, chicken stock (and corn?!?!) and spiced with green peppers and chiles. Personally I find this to be more of a soup recipe than a chili one.
I’m not looking to be overly traditionalist here. If you have a chicken chili recipe that lacks beans and/or tomatoes ala Texas Red I’m all for it, but of you have one that’s got those additions that’s great too. I just want something with a deep, complex flavor, spicy, hearty and not too soupy.
Thanks for the recipe, but this is similar to the recipes that I’ve been finding online. It’s probably delicious but it just seems like a white chili with dark beans instead of white beans. It almost reads like a Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe.
I’m not dead set on something tomato based, but I think a chili probably has to contain chili powder. Some adobo sauce or some chipotles, red peppers and chiles and maybe some tomato or tomato paste too for body.
That said, all recipes are welcomed. Partly because other doper might want to enjoy them even if they don’t have my aversion to white recipes and partly because it might give me a base on which I can add chili powder and chipotles too to create something new and tasty.
I’ve got an awesome chilli recipe that would work with chicken, but it has a lot of tomatoes in it so I’m loath to post it just in case I’m being a philistine.
As I understand it, it is true, by definition and for all eternity, of the Texas bowl of red. If you add tomatoes, what you’ve got is an Oklahoma bowl of red. And if you add beans, now you’ve got something many purists deny is chili at all. (See this thread.)
Why don’t you do a chicken mole chili? You can either start with a mole recipe with chipotles, like this one and build it into a chili, or if you have better google-fu than I, maybe you can find a recipe. I couldn’t.
That’s what I was going to post, Alice. Mole sauce, black beans, chicken, cumin, garlic and some freshly chopped cilantro sprinkled on the top once it is dished up.
1 Leftover Turkey Carcass and leftover Meat.
1 pound of tomatillos
6 cloves of garlic
1 small white onion chopped
1 can of green chile
5 poblanos seeded and diced
1 tsp. smoked habanero chile powder
2 chipotles and a 2 bsps. abdobo
4 toasted Guajillos
4 quarts chicken stock
Salt and Pepper
It’s a skeleton. I’ll let you decide what to do with it
*Hint…Broil the Tomatillos and garlic till blistered and brown.
Sautee the onions, spices, guajillo and green chile in oil.
Add the tomatillos and garlic …develop all of the flavors in a sweat.
Blend with the chicken stock till smooth and chunky in a blender.
Return to the pot and add the Turkey Carcass and meat.
Simmer for a minimum of two hours and serve with some deep fried tortilla strips in a bowl.
Here’s my favorite chicken “chili”* recipe:
Get a package of chicken thighs, pull off the skin and loose fat, but don’t bother deboning them. Put five or six of them in a crock pot with a can each of black beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans, rinsed or with juice, whatever.
Throw in a whole onion chopped in big pieces, a bunch of tomatoes (fresh and chopped if you’ve got good home-grown, or canned), some salsa, a bunch of garlic, and the following spice mix:
(all approximate)
1 tb cumin
1 fat half-tb kosher salt, or more to taste
the same amount of onion powder, black pepper and red pepper flakes (we like very hot food, so I’ll put in a tablespoon or more red pepper and a bunch of those little thai chilies, but do what suits you)
a teaspoon or so each of chili powder, oregano, and paprika.
Let it stew all day in the crock pot, stirring once or twice towards the end of the day to break up the chicken and remove the thigh bones if they bother you, then serve with a little sour cream and some corn chips, yum.
*which, containing both beans and tomatoes, is probably not chili at all, but it’s good!
Most Americans would have no problem with tomatoes (or beans) in chili. Chili has become a bit of a bastardized term (purists would have a heart attack at Cincinnati’s Skyline chili.) Around my area, “chili” generally includes tomatoes and beans, and most people would be surprised not to find beans in their chili. I use the term with a little more specificity, myself, but I accept the fact that it’s popularly used in a very broad manner.
